435 



c. 



CABBAGE. 



486 



C 



/~1 This letter is derived from the Latin alphabet, in which it first 

 ^ appears. But even in that alphabet it originally possessed the 

 power of a, as pronounced in goose. Thus the Roman proper names 

 Cairn and Cneius, which retained this sound, are correctly represented 

 in the Greek character by Gaios and Gnaios ; and the Duilian inscrip- 

 tion presents mafestratua, leciones, pucnandod, ecfoelont, in the place of 

 the modem forms, magittratiti, legiones, puynando, effugiunt. Indeed 

 the poet Ausonius expressly states that C once performed the duty of 

 G : Gamma? rice functa prius C. (See also Festus, rv. Prodiyia, Orcum.) 

 This medial pronunciation corresponds with the power of the letters 

 which occupy the third place in the Greek and Hebrew alphabets, 

 gamma and gimfl ; and the identity of the letters is confirmed by the 

 similarity of the forms. [ALPHABET.] 



The letter c in English is pronounced as before i, e, and as k before 

 a, o, u. This variety in the power of the letter seems difficult to account 

 for ; but it may be observed that i, e, belong to one end of the vowel 

 series, a, o, u, to the other [ALPHABET] ; and it is further to be noticed 

 that the vowels i and e, when they precede vowels, have a power 

 approaching to that of // in //','/, and that if in addition to this, c or y 

 precede, there often results a sound like that at the beginning of the 

 words church and John, and this sound of cli is not very difl'erent from 

 .1 sibilant. The vowels i and e produce a similar sound when preceded 

 by d or 1, and followed as before by a vowel. Thus from ratio the 

 Italians have obtained ray'imc ; and from radio, raugio ; from Diana 

 the rustics of Italy made Jana. These considerations are perhaps 

 supported by the employment of the little mark called cedilla in the 

 French language, which is used to denote that c is to be pronounced as 

 f even before the other vowels, as f a ; for the mark appears to have 

 been originally an I. The connexion of the sounds It and s will be 

 again spoken of. 



The letter r, when pronounced as in cat, belongs to the order of 

 guttural or throat letters, and among these it is distinguished by that 

 character which grammarians have denoted by the Latin word tennis, 

 " thi'n." The correct distinction of the letters called tenucs, as opposed 

 to those which bear the name of mtdialx, is perhaps this, that in the 

 pronunciation of the teniten )i, I; I, the organs employed in articulation 

 have only a small portion of their surfaces brought into contact, and 

 that but for a short time ; while in the articulation of b, y, d, the sur- 

 face in contact is more extensive and the effort less rapid. 



The letter e is liable to the following interchanges : 1. In the deri- 

 vation of French words from the Latin, c before a is changed into cha 

 or chc ; ex., the Lat. camera, a vaulted chamber, cattus, chaste, &c., cams, 

 dear, cadtre, to fall, cata, cottage, appear in French under the forms, 

 chambre, chatte,&c., cher, cheoir, chez, &e. In this way the English 

 langiAge has derived channel, chlralry, charnd, chattels, through the 

 French from the Latin canal!?, <.//;//*, faro (carni), capitalia ; and 

 at the same time possesses the words canal, cavalry, or caralcadc, 

 at, "iitle, derived from the same roots, but by a different route. 

 In the patois prevailing in the N.E. of France, the sound of the I; 

 still remains in these words, chemin being pronounced kemin, chat 

 as cat. 



2. The change of c into ch prepares us in some measure for that of 

 c into , as Lat. fadmus, we do, Fr. faimns ; Lat. placere, licere, FT. 

 plaifir. Itiixir, Kng. iilraiure, leisure. This interchange of c and is 

 strongly exemplified in the comparison of the Western languages of 

 Europe with those lying towards the East. Thus we have in Latin, 

 cani*, dog ; conca, shell ; centum, hundred ; decem, ten; <</,//(.<//, 

 h.-uip : in Greek, kuon (war), kwiche (KO^XI). hekaton (tK<nov), dcka 

 (8co), knniialnt (Kavvaffu) ; in Sanskrit, iaran, sanca, sata,damn, Sana ; 

 and in Russian, the forms for calamus, cm-, centum, canis, are mama, 

 . toliiita. It should be stated, however, that the s in the 

 Sanskrit alphabet, which is thus convertible with the k of the West, is 

 a letter of a peculiar character, and is marked by a distinct symbol. 

 EV..II Herodotus has" observed (ix. 20) that the commander of the 

 Hi cavalry, Masistios, was called by the Greeks Makistios, and the 

 same interchange may occasionally be seen in the Teutonic languages, 

 as in t , fatal and fecliten, Eng. fst and fight, words as cer- 



tainly related as the Latin pwjnare and pugnns. The pronunciation of 

 tlj- Latin c as an < in such words as Cicero, Ctesar, is proved to be 

 incorrect by the Greek equivalents Kikeron (Kixtpuv), Kaisar (Koicrap), 

 and no less so by the co-existence of such forms as accr, acris; and it 

 would be trifling to defend the pronunciation by the accidental identity 

 in form of the Roman c and one of the many symbols for the Greek 

 sigma. [ALPHABET.] 



8. C initial of the Latin language corresponds to h in the German. 

 Compare collian, halt, neck ; celare, liehlen, hide ; cut!*, haul, hide ; can- 

 nabit, hanf, hemp; canis, hand, hound; cornu, horn, horn; calamus, 

 halm, stalk ; caput, haupt, head ; cor (cord) her;, heart ; crate*, horte, 

 hurdle. Traces of the same change are visible within the Latin itself, 

 as traho, traxi (trac-ei) ; who, vexi (vec-si) ; and the town o! Apulia, 



called by Strabo Kerdonia, is called by Roman writers Herdonia. So 

 the Greeks had ossos (otraos), an eye, while the Romans preferred 



4. C is convertible with v and ic. This may be seen in the related 

 forms Dacus, Dai'us ; focus, foveo ; nix, niris; cotniireo, cvnnixi ; lacus, 

 lam ; rh-o, rixi ; itruo, strum'. Thus too the English * quick (the ori- 

 ginal meaning of which is seen in the phrases " the quick and the 

 dead," " the quick of the nail,") is identical with the Latin virus; and 

 we have another remarkable example in the derivation of our words 

 eleven and ttrelre from the Latin undeclm, duodecim. [See L.] 



5. C into y. The change already mentioned of the power of the 

 Roman symbol e is a sufficient proof of this. We may add eager, 

 meagre, derived through the French air/re, maiyre, from the Latin accr, 

 macer. The old meaning of eager in Shakspeare is sharp, sour, as eai/er 

 tnilk ; and indeed the word appears again in rlnegar, vinaigre. So too 

 aveitgle, blind, must have come from a Latin word, aboculus. The same 

 change appears in the Teutonic. To the Latin ocitius corresponds the 

 German auye ; to duc-o, zoy and zuy ; while the Latin lacr-uma, or 

 Greek dakr-yon, has in Gothic the form tayr, a tear. 



6. The interchange of c with p is most remarkable in the Greek and 

 Latin languages, the former commonly preferring the labial. Gr.pepo, 

 Lat. cofjuo, cook; Gr. leipo, Lat. linyuo, leave; Gr. pipto (or rather pi- 

 pet-o), Lat. cad-o, fall, &c. The same interchange appears within Italy 

 itself ; the pigeon in Rome was called columba, the pigeon out of Rome, 

 that is the wild pigeon, was called ptdumba ; so pro.cimns, nearest, has 

 supplanted propsimus, fmcaprope, near. The Latin word qutcquid ITU 

 pronounced by an Oscan as pitpit, and Augustus, we are told by Sue- 

 tonius (Octav. 88), cashiered an officer for his ignorance in spelling iptc 

 with an ,r.f This convertibility of the tenues extends to the letter (. 

 Thus we find scapula and spatula both conveying the notion of a blade. 

 The Greek tetartos, fourth, tin, who, te, and, appear in Latin as quartvs, 

 i/itls, quc. The old name of the rock of Gibraltar assumes the various 

 forms, Calpe, Carpe, Carte, Tarte. And in English we have nut, from 

 Lat. nux (cs) ; and, on the other hand, cork from cort-ex. 



7. Latin words beginning with cu, have often lost the guttural. 

 Thus itbi occupies the place of cubt, an old dative of the relative (com- 

 pare sii-ubi, alicubi, &c.) ; uter of cuter (compare the Greek koteros), 

 iimquam of cnmrjnam (compare together quis, cum, quisquam). This 

 variety appears in our own tongue, where which, formerly whilk, was 

 once written quieliilk. 



8. C often disappears before I and n. This naturally arises from the 

 difficulty of pronunciation, as in knee, Lat. genn ; know, Lat. gno-sco ; 

 thus from the old Frank name Clodovick are derived Clovis, Louis, 

 Ludovicus, Ludwig, Lovick. 



9. In the derivation of Italian and French words from the Latin, r, 

 disappears before a (, the preceding vowel being commonly strength- 

 ened, as Lat. dictus, said, It. ditto, Fr. dit ; Lat. cactus, cooked, It. colto 

 (whence terra* cotta), Fr. cult (whence bis-ctiit, twice baked). It also 

 disappears at times before an r, as in Lat. sacramentum, oath, Fr. scr- 

 ment ; Lat. lacrima, a tear, Fr. larme. Lastly, the same fate awaits it 

 when flanked on either side by vowels ; compare the Latin locus, jocus, 

 focia, paucum, vices, apicula, corbicula, oculus, nocere, &c., with the 

 French lieu, jeit, feu, peu, fois, abeille, corbellle, (ell, nuire, &c. 



C is the Latin symbol for a hundred. Whether it is so used 

 as being the first letter of centum, a hundred, may be doubted. 

 [NUMERALS.] 



CABAL is often applied to a set of persons, too insignificant in point 

 of number to form a party, who endeavour to effect their purposes by 

 underhand means. The ministers of Charles II., Clifford, Ashley, 

 Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale, the initials of whose names 

 happen to form the word cabal, were appropriately called the " Cabal 

 Ministry.' The word "cabal" appears to 'come from the French 

 cabale, a term employed to express a number of persons acting in 

 concert ; and it is generally understood in a bad sense. (Richelet.) It 

 was, however, used in our language a considerable time before the 

 formation of the Cabal Ministry mentioned above. 



CABBAGE. There are several species of the genus Brassica, or 

 cabbage, which comprehends the turnip, the rape, the cole, and the 

 common culinary cabbage, or Jirassica, oleracca. The innumerable 

 varieties arise from difference of soil and cultivation ; and as all the 

 cabbage tribe form hybrids, new varieties are continually produced. 

 This is effected by the bees, when different sorts are in flower at the 

 same time. The pollen adheres to their body as they seek honey in 

 the flowers, and being deposited oi> the pistils of other sorts, im- 

 pregnates the germen. Hence only one variety of cabbage should be 



* In some of the provinces of England 'wick' is used in the sense of quick. A 

 thing that is altve is said to be ' wick.' 



f In our own language we hare rock (Fr. roche), from the Latin rtipes, scum 

 (Fr. ecume) from spuma. 



